One of the things I love about this show is that they take normal fears and expound on them. We’ve had Bloody Mary, Werewolves, Vampires, ghosts and numerous other legendary monsters or urban legends.

So naturally people in furry costumes is the next step right?

Super creepy.

This is very much a run of the mill monster hunt episode, but that doesn’t mean that it isn’t a great episode. We have a compelling ghost story (somewhat along the lines of Yellow Fever back in season 4– awkward guy, gets killed by some jerks, then tries to get revenge from beyond the grave), we have Donna– who as always shines, and we have some scary haunted costumes.

If only she was also Paleo. . .

Seriously though– I wonder about the first victim. It’s one thing to dress up, but who in their right mind owns this many creepy costumes?

Yes the clown is super creepy, but no less than ANY of the other costumes. Sam’s continued fear of clowns after all the scary/world ending things he’s seen amazes me though.

The boys though figure out that not just one costume was haunted and after the first bunny wearer died they managed to save the others that were infected, but just like the soulless people that Amara is leaving behind I don’t know what to say about the girl that murdered the coach. She did murder him and I don’t see how she’s going to get out of that. Plus what school has a mascot like that? Yeah they let her go, but seriously I don’t see how that’s going to work. They know who put on the costume right? The clown maybe I can see as a little less likely to be found.

I enjoyed the classic ghost hunt though, of course they touched a little on the whole God search and the quest to end The Darkness. The big things were the fact that Sam is praying to God to try to figure out what the visions mean (and he prays like 4 year old learning his prayers) and it seems that the answer is that his visions are from his time in the Cage.

Does he need to break open the cage? Will we see their long forgotten half brother any times soon? Do they need to trap the Darkness in the cage too? Will they make an even bigger mess? Most definitely.

OK even I have a strange fascination about the Lizzie Borden case so I was really interested in this episode when I saw the previews and it did not disappoint.

Ghostfacers

Right out the gate the about-to-be-dead guy mentions how the Ghostfacers can’t capture the rage in the house. Come on– the Ghostfacers are the best and it makes me happy that they are still relevant in the Supernatural Universe. Then of course him and his girlfriend got an ax to the back.

The Lizzie Borden house

The house in general was a great backdrop for this episode. It had all the macabre elements that those kind of places have plus the creepy, too personal, feel of a bed a breakfast. Turns out though that all the flickering lights, strange sounds, EMF readings and all of that were staged by the owners to make guests scared/excited about the possibilities of a haunting.

What would be better than Lizzie Borden’s house? The Winchester House. I have always wondered why they haven’t done an episode focused on that house or at least mentioned it at some point. Of course maybe they don’t have working squeezy things on their perfume bottles and that’s why.

The episode moves on and Dean sees a creepy dude taking pictures outside and then overnight the owner got hacked to death too. Leading them to go interview said creepy dude. On their way to interview him though the cops call and tell Sam that there has been another victim. So the boys split up.

Odd behavior from interviewees

Sam interviews the newest victim’s family (and babysitter) and the wife of the victim acts very very strangely– like she doesn’t care at all that her husband was just found on the driveway chopped up. Odd right?

Well then Dean interviews Len, who may be the best new character we’ve seen this season, and we find out that Len has recently met Amara and she most definitely sucked out his soul. This explains a few things and Dean finds out that Amara is aging super quickly.

Dean throws Len in the car with him because he knows that soulless people usually end up in a bad way. Len is showing an odd amount of compassion though for a soulless individual.

Dean can’t bring himself to break the news to Len though and tries to get Sam to do it (and seems sad that he doesn’t have an excuse to kill Len– which seems odd to me). Sams stalls at breaking the news though. . .so Dean does it.

Seriously though Len is the best thing about this episode

Don’t tell Mom the babysitter’s. . .oh wait

So the babysitter ends up being the bad guy here. Well– she seems like she was a nice girl until Amara sucked her soul out. We still haven’t figured out Amara’s end game and although she’s filling up on souls all over she could be doing much worse damage if she wanted to. Is there a reason she’s pacing herself? Is her growth limited or is she playing a bigger game?

The babysitter gave her evil speech which ends in her saying that she wants to take care of her murder victim’s son and says Sam and Dean are going to be sacrifices to Amara— who she’s contacting through “prayer”. My thoughts on this are: Does she feel the connection that Dean has to Amara? Is that why she doesn’t kill him? Why does she want to care for the boy? They talk all about how Len isn’t acting like someone who lost his soul completely, but why would she care about the well being of some kid. I would think a truly soulless person would kill the kid too.

We never find out though because Len buries an ax in her back, but with her dying breath she says, “The Darkness is coming. It’s so peaceful. It’s coming for all of us.” What if the Darkness is just life without a soul? A life without feelings or concerns.

Len turns himself in

Wait, what? Len ripped his thumb off out of curiosity to see if he could do it to get out of the cuffs and then went in and saved the day for Sam and Dean. Not because he felt obligated to help, but just because he could. He knows that he’s going to become a bad guy eventually and doesn’t want to hurt someone. But here’s the thing. He turns himself in so that way he’ll be locked away for crimes he didn’t commit, but won’t be able to hurt other people. What about the inmates though? Some of them may deserve getting murdered by a soulless person, but I’m sure there’s also people in there that just made a few mistakes, or can’t cope with the real world. I just find it slightly flawed that Sam and Dean were so cool with this option. Why not just admit to the final murder and ask for help/therapy? Maybe commit yourself to an institution?

What kind of person can murder and feel nothing?

Dean. Dean is that kind of person right now. Len asks that question, but Dean has been had to be corrected numerous times by Sam who has reminded him that he’s there to save innocents not kill people. Did Amara take Dean’s soul too and he just doesn’t remember that? Does he know and he’s keeping it from Sam? Something just feels off about Dean and I wonder if Amara’s coming took away an important part of Dean. Len says, “I remember what it was like to do the right thing so I’m going through the motions for as long as I can,” and that seems to me to be exactly what Dean is doing right now.

Can Dean feel Amara?

He seems to look right in the woods where Amara is hiding when he and Sam pull away. Does he feel her presence? Of course something is up with her– I just wonder which way they are going to take it.

Well goodbye Len– I’ll miss you. You were like Castiel with your cluelessness, but without the desire to do good.

To say this was the best episode this season is understating it a bit. This episode is proof of why we are on season 11 of this show. We have a weekly monster hunt with the boys and they are actually getting along. By getting along I mean they are talking about how to save the world without blaming one another, they are joking and playing pranks, and they are working together towards a common goal.

So what does that make me? Happy? Well yes, but also really really nervous. Their exchange of “Bitch” and “Jerk” was just as heartwarming/nerve wracking as Glenn calling Rick asshole. You know when this happens it’s not going to end pretty (although hopefully those weren’t Glenn’s guts getting torn out, but back to Supernatural). Well I’ve mentioned that this episode is filled with misdirection so let me explain. . .no there is too much. . .let me sum up.

Is Chuck God?

We hear Chuck’s voice over, from way back when the Apocalypse was all we had to worry about, talking about the Impala (Baby) and then Sam praying to God for help. So is Chuck God? I think so but they dance around actually coming out and saying it. We see that connection and then we see someone meant to look like their dad talking to Sam in a dream. Is this God? Is Chuck playing a dude, playing another dude? We are slowly moving towards a God answer and I hope that Chuck is God (but what if God replaced Chuck right before Dean went to go save Sam from Lucifer? Is Chuck really himself again and God just looked like him for a while? OK I’m starting to over think everything).

ummm one of your sons turned into Satan and the other became a demon, but you know. . .

There’s no way Dean can escape

After we hear about how amazing Baby is and are reminded how this car has been with them through it all. It’s there home more than any nasty hotel room or cool bunker. The opening scene is beautifully shot showing all those little details that Chuck talked about way back when Dean saved Sam by getting him to jump into the pit of Hell. We see the initials, the army man, the little imperfections that make her special. . .and then we see the busted window, the blood and Dean lying prone with his hands cuffed behind his back. So he’s screwed right?

Cut to the beginning of this trip where they continually mention that this is a nothing case (but we know better cause we’ve seen Dean hurt and trapped in the back of the wrecked Impala). Lets stop and eat– there’s not a rush– this isn’t a real case– etc. We also see Dean up to no good going to a nasty dive while Sam talks about how he just wants to go to a hotel and get some sleep. Good Sam always doing what he should. Right? Well then we see Dean coming out of the bar the next morning just looking gross and grimy– he’s such a bad boy. Oh wait– no that’s Sam in the back seat with a random waitress. Once again we are lead to believe that Dean’s up to no good to find out the opposite.

Just like it looks like Dean is screwed at the beginning of the episode, but we find out that there is very little in this episode he didn’t have handled. He gets attacked and handles it while on the phone with Cas– then has to rekill the body still while on the phone. Oh and using the windshield wipers to get rid of the werepire’s head? Awesomeness. His line, “Turns out I did shoot the deputy” completes a joke from way back when Lilith was first bothering them.

Of course the wife is a bad guy

After taking care of the monster (at least as good as he could right now) he goes to help Sam who has “saved” the wife of the Sheriff who was being attacked by more monsters. Which this misdirection didn’t surprise me. An unconscious person in the back seat that they haven’t gotten to interrogate yet is most definitely a bad guy too. Which she was.

Just like the deputy seemed like a helpless idiot and turns out to be the monster that had created a herd of monsters just like him. Once again what we see/think isn’t reality.

Is the fun all a misdirection too?

Sam is having fun, they are joking with each other, fighting about how Dean is driving, quoting music lyrics, even had a little sappy moment about how they will always be alone. Dean gives Sam a hard time about his one night stand, Sam and Dean exchange their signature Bitch and Jerk. Everything is great. Yeah there’s a huge evil in the world, but as long as they are together everything is perfect. Seriously it is, which is what worries me. What’s coming up that will balance out all this harmony between the boys?

John (or the person pretending to be John) talks about how Dean has taken care of the car and how the car has taken care of them and then the next day Dean forces it into a barrier. So Sam thinks he’s talking to God and what if he’s getting manipulated by something else? At this point I don’t trust anything that I see. Anything that seems like a good idea I’m questioning pretty hard. How has Michael’s vessel turned into this ex-demon, former Mark of Cain having, Darkness linked dude and Lucifer’s vessel turned into a guy that is looking for help from God?

Overall this was a fun episode to watch. Following the car around the case instead of one or both of the boys was great. The valet that took the car for a joyride was fun to watch especially since this transgression eventually lead to Dean’s salvation from the werepire. The Monster, although scary, was humorously dealt with, Cas, although not seen, was a big help in taking care of the case (and he caught up on Orange is the New Black) and we fell just a little bit more in love with the Impala.

Last week I was in Florida nerding it up to some Harry Potter and never got the chance to do a review, but I want to touch on just a couple of things before moving on to this week’s episode. First off– it’s super handy that Amara has revealed that she’s going to age super quick. Making it more of an option for Dean to kill/have sex with her than before. I’m glad also that Castiel seems to have killed another chunk of Angels and I hope that’s the end of the Angel storyline for a while. Angel politics are boring (unless Chuck comes back). Sam handily found the cure to the disease that the Darkness brought with her right before he died. FYI as a general rule– don’t do what makes sense when you’re sick out of your mind with some kind of evil disease. Yeah it worked well for Sam, but I’m going to say that’s probably always a bad idea. You’re probably just going to burn your face off– not somehow cure your body by just getting a fire really close to your skin. (No burn or anything huh?).

OK now on to this week and the introduction of the. . .MEGA COVEN! I love that she kept trying to make that work and I totally see how she lost her place in the Grand Coven. It was also very satisfying to see her face when she found out that Crowley was still alive (what’s up with villains leaving the scene before the important death has happened?) The Book of the Damned is the only thing really that she has going for her.

Next we have some flash backs and moody moments from Team Winchester while they are trying to figure out how to both destroy the Darkness and fix Castiel. I’m really unhappy they brought up Metatron again– I’d like him to finally die for good any day now. Castiel has now begun having scary seizures which bodes well right?

I have missed Castiel’s clueless, yet technically true, statements.

Dean for some reason keeps calling Crowley too to get help from him. I’m not sure why he thinks that Crowley would be looking to help him in any way since last time they were hanging out Dean stabbed him through the hand with an Angel Blade.

At least Crowley is acting like normal again and Sam hasn’t forgotten that he’s 100% still a bad guy.

Amara is beginning to show Crowley how scary she really is. She’s totally using Crowley for her feast of souls and access to his power. I have a feeling that next week Crowley will be running to the boys trying to get help to imprison her again. She runs through an insane number of souls feeding at an increasing rate and we see Crowley trying to slow her feeding down towards the end of the episode. That doesn’t seem like that’s going to go so well for him.

Creepy little kids are the worst.

I’m also going to take a moment to mention the Angel/Demon drinks after work date. This also seems super strange to me and kind of random, but I’m assuming that this will be important since they too the time to put this in. Will the regular demons and minor Angels revolt? Will they be the ones to fix this mess?

I really enjoyed this episode, but there was all kinds of crap going on in this episode. We’ve had major plot development, work towards fixing the big problems in this season (Castiel, Rowena, AND Amara), and then they also throw in a “monster of the week” feel with the interrogation of the last witch from Rowena’s lunch date. It was pretty easy for them to get her to work with them, but I have a feeling she’s not a huge Rowena fan anyway. This image though wraps up everything that I love about when the boys actually work together.

Such coordination.

And of course Dean’s snark was great to see too– I hate it when they are fighting or when Dean starts taking things too seriously. I mean we need his witty comments even when things are serious.

The info they get from this witch though allows them to track down Rowena and take her back to the bunker (are they not concerned with people learning where it is?). Before they start to break her down though they realize that Castiel is gone and since last time they saw him he was 8 shades of crazy they load her up and take her on a road trip to find their missing Angel.

Conveniently they find Castiel right before he kills an innocent girl, but he has lost control so he punches Dean a good bit before they get him under control. This was very reminiscent of when the Angels had brainwashed Castiel and had made him kill Dean over and over again. Was that just a flashback of that situation and Castiel was reliving it? He was pretty out of it, but for some reason Rowena lifted the curse and then fled. Yes I know Sam had a gun on her, but she managed to get away pretty easily and quickly so I’m just surprised she let them keep her prisoner and didn’t break away as soon as they walked into that warehouse.

Dean’s face looked like it hurt though

I know it’s makeup, but ouch that looks like it hurts.

So we end this episode with a cured Castiel, but a guilty feeling Angel. A scary preteen Amara who is consuming the souls of everyone she can. An MIA Rowena and a scared looking Crowley. Will Amara eat Crowley? That’d probably give her a ton of power or at least be the equivalent of Thanksgiving Dinner for her. What will happen when she gets a hold of an Angel?

Sam and Dean seem to be working together well with minimum secrets (although there are still some because they never learn), Crowley I’m worried for and Amara I’m scared of. So all in all this is going to be a very interesting season if it continues this way.

Hello all again! Last time we talked Sam and Dean had unleashed “The Darkness” on the world so that they could save Dean. Totes a great idea. I mean anything named “The Darkness” seems like it’ll be fun. This whole episode was one big mess of action which I feel like means that Season 11 isn’t going to be the jumbled mess that most of season 8 and 9 were. At least I really hope so.

Castiel’s Torture Problem

Cas is super confused right now and seems to be looking for help in all the wrong places. Really he’s the only Angel left that I have any patience for (well except Gabriel, but it’s been too long since he’s been a player to count). So he’s been carried off by the bad Angels (true they do have a reason to hate him and want him dead, but still) to be tortured and killed and has called Sam and Dean to say goodbye. I’m 100% not sure where they’re going with this. Is it time for Cas to get killed off? I hope not, but I can see how that would make sense. I just really hope that they don’t drag out the Angel storyline for much longer. Give them Heaven and all the power back and lets move on.

Crowley’s Unstable Leadership

Crowley has lost his regular body (well he did for a little bit) and gets to be a woman for a bit. I found this amusing and enjoyable, but I was glad that he went back to his regular appearance. Mark Shepherd is just too great to go away like that. Crowley finally calls in help so that he can get back to Hell, but he’s lost even more of his control over his demons. What got me super excited was talk of Lucifer and Michael in the cage. Will their brother finally be saved? I’d love to see that story line addressed again though. It’s been glossed over for way too long.

The Zombie Like Infection

The Darkness seems to have unleashed a disease that is infecting innocent people and the infection looks amazingly like the Leviathan black goo that infected people a few seasons ago. They also act like the Kroatoans from a long time ago. So I’m a little disappointed that this new evil looks so much like the past ones, but I’m not going to be super judge-y right now and try to see how it plays out.

Sam’s Darkness Problem

Sam managed to let the zombie/Leviathan/Kroatoan creature bleed all in his mouth (really Sam– you’ve avoided Vampire blood this whole time, but not this chick?) Of course he’s keeping all this a secret from Dean cause that’s worked out sooo well in the past. Everyone else seems to Hulk out after a few hours though and Sam seems to have made it to the limit by the end of the episode. Will his Kroatoan immunity help him out? Will his connection to Dean help (since he obviously has a connection to the source of this issue)? I’m relieved it looks like this will be resolved pretty quickly though since the infection seems to come to a head quickly.

Dean’s New Girlfriend/Kid

So Dean evidently got to meet “The Darkness” right up front and of course she was a hot woman that flirted with him. What I didn’t expect was that she turns out to be the baby that they’ve sworn to protect. Which makes the flirting super creepy. I do find this interesting because even though they’ve dealt with bad guy little kids before they’ve never actually killed said kids. They’ve all conveniently possessed an older person for the death scene. So will the baby grow crazy Twilight like fast? Will Dean be able to kill it at all? Will killing it or locking it away put the Mark back on Dean?

Yeah I’ve got no clue here, but at least it’s a twist to the Leviathan like plot of an ancient evil unleashed upon the world. And I don’t think we have seen them solve a problem like this before.

Yes I’m angry that Sam’s still keeping secrets and Dean is with his connection with The Darkness. But I am happy that they seem to be trying to think outside the box to change this cycle of bad decisions. They might not be doing it right, but they are at least trying-ish.

I’ve had theories as to how they were going to fix Dean all season long, but I have to say this episode dealt me surprise after surprise.

We start out this episode with a ranting Sam giving all the reasons they should do whatever they can to save Dean, but with Cas warning about the consequences about doing that. I know they will figure something out (they always do), but I’m going to agree a little with Cas here. Sam and Dean don’t always make the wisest decisions about each other.

First Life Lesson of the Night

Next we see Dean most assuredly not alright.

Nope you’re not good at all Dean. If any of you wake up like this in the mornings– you are also very far from good. [Insert “The More you Know” Rainbow].

Dean’s day just keeps getting better too. He starts off by calling a murdered girl a whore (which he totally missed the opportunity to make a comment about the Whore of Babylon) and the rounds it out by trying to run off the hunter that called him in on the case in the first place. His charm gets even better in a minute. When he goes to interview the dead girls parents he not only makes them so mad that the dad punches him repeatedly in the face, he also pulls a gun on the dad AND the son. Hunter of the Year right here. He did find out the location of the vampire nest though so there’s that.

Rowena doesn’t fall for bluffs

Evidently Crowley can’t find another witch for them (why has that not been asked yet?) so they are stuck with Rowena. She strong arms them into promising her freedom and the Codex in exchange for performing the spell. I’m sure this is going to go perfectly.

She reads the spell out loud telling Sam and Cas the three ingredients she’ll need to do the spell. It turns out that Dr. Seuss invented the language it was written in and that they need the forbidden fruit, the golden calf and the thing Rowena loves. A little bit of a challenging shopping list.

She looks pretty fantastic for someone chained up in a nasty dungeon-y place.

She once again establishes that she’s the worst mother ever and doesn’t love Crowley, but Cas does read her mind and finds out that she did love a boy named Oscar. After Sam gets a phone call from the Hunter that Dean was a douche to he gets Cas to go get the ingredients for the spell while he goes to find Dean.

Dean is Passing the Point of No Return

Dean makes it to the cabin where the vampires are holed up and kills one immediately then walks in to find Red Shirt Hunter Dude trapped with a knife to his throat. First off Dean is scary in this scene with his lack of desire to try to save a fellow hunter. Secondly I feel like any other hunter would have escaped that vampire while he was waiving that knife all around. So I don’t agree with the fact that Dean proceeds to mock the vampire into killing the guy, but I do think that someone with better instincts would have gotten out of the way so Dean could have chopped the bad guy’s head off. Dean cuts the hostage loose before leaving her with multiple dead bodies, but I was surprised that he didn’t check to make sure she hadn’t been turned before leaving. I half expected him to chop her head off just to be safe.

Dean may have left calmly, but everything he just did hit him hard once he got back to the hotel room as was evidenced by his temper tantrum.

If anyone can sexily destroy a seedy hotel room though it’s this guy.

The Bro Love is Strong with Crowley

So Sam just tried to kill Crowley with the help of his POS mother yet all Castiel has to do to get him to help Dean is ask nicely. That’s it and all of a sudden Crowley is back with the fruit from the tree and a piece of the Golden Calf. These boys are too close to let a little attempted murder to bother them.

I, along with everyone else, love Castiel’s literal take on everything.

Now we know things are bad

Sam finds Dean’s hotel room, but he’s gone and he left a note with the keys to the Impala saying simply, “She’s all yours.” You know that Dean is gone when he gives away the Impala. You can see how much it freaks out Sam as well to see this casual note along with the trashed hotel room.

We cut to Dean summoning something that looks dangerous and turns out to be Death. Death is one of my favorite characters. He plays by his own rules. He helped the boys beat Lucifer, but he’s not really on their side.Dean asks Death to kill him and when he refuses he asks Death to remove it (I might would have asked those things in the opposite order). Death tells Dean that he can take the Mark away if he agrees to pass it on to someone else. Why you ask? Because of course the Mark isn’t just a curse, it’s also a key to a prison that holds back “The Darkness.” That not only sounds ominous, but also sounds like the writers are running out of names for their bad guys.

Dean agrees to Death’s other deal then and calls Sam so he’ll come and meet him for one final goodbye.

Crowley is still a sad lonely little boy

Crowley is still on the hunt for something that Rowena loves, but we find out that the diner owner he was talking to last week was actually the one person that Rowena loves. So by bringing him to her to murder he’s really just happy he’s found a way to hurt her. She lied to Castiel about Oscar and pretended like he was long dead when she knew he was immortal and hanging around somewhere. So her freedom must not have meant that much too her– until she was almost made to look weak in front of her son.

Poor Crowley.

Now Rowena has everything she needs to make the spell work and Sam doesn’t know that they are performing the spell as he’s meeting Dean.

Sam and Dean still like to fight

Sam shows up and right off the bat argues with Dean over his decision. He thinks that Dean is going to go off to space with Death and leave him all alone. However, Dean’s next statement surprised and shocked me.

The thought of Dean killing Sam is so alien to me I can’t wrap my head around it and I mostly watched the rest of the episode with my mouth open unsure of how this was going to work. Also here’s an image of Dean chilling in Space like Death wanted him to:

Dean’s thought process is that Sam won’t let Dean live wherever Death has planned so Sam has to die so that Dean can live forever alone in peace. Ummm no Dean. I get what you’re saying, but no. Sam begs with him, argues with him, and then finishes it off with a fist fight. . .as brothers do.

I love so many things about this. Sam got into a fight with crazy Dean knowing that when it went too far that he could cry Uncle and get him to stop. They also have a thorough discussion of good and evil. This is something that I feel like the writers have been dancing around for a while. The boys were obviously good when this show started, but after it all are they still good? Should they be one of the monsters hunters hunt?

Sam finally agrees to let Dean kill him though. Before he completely surrenders he gives him pictures of their family as reminders of what good and love really are. It’s at this moment we see something break in Dean, but I’m still not sure how Dean can get out of killing Sam. Something I’ve worried about since he originally took the Mark.

He reaches up to bring Death’s blade down onto Sam and keeps swinging around, stabbing Death in the chest with it. Death’s blade was established as the only thing that could kill Death way back when during the Apocalypse. So now Dean has killed Death for some reason (well to save Sam, but he’s the one that called Death in the first place) and he doesn’t quite seem to know what to do next.

RIP Death. You will be missed.

As he’s trying to figure out what their next move should be Rowena finishes the spell and successfully manages to remove the Mark from Dean’s arm. The only down side to this development is that Rowena is now free and appears to have taken control of Castiel and sent him to kill Crowley.

Taking a cue from the Sopranos it cuts to black before we know if Cas goes through with it or not.

Oh yeah that too

Oh yeah “The Darkness” thing that Death was going on about now seems to be free and not wasting any time taking over the world. Ooops. I’m sure it’ll be all OK right? At least Death is dead so no one can die until a new Death takes over. . .

For weeks now we’ve heard all about how Dean was out of control and needed to be cured and I’ve been saying that he seems totally normal. Even better than normal. Now I’m going to say that I see what all the fuss was about. Dean is full on crazy right now.

They start by trying to make us feel sorry for one of the Stynes and it kinda works. So there’s one dude out of this huge family of psychos that isn’t all bad yet and there really isn’t much he could do to get away at this point in his life. Your whole family is still a bunch of monsters though. I’m sorry you get picked on by a young Daryl Dixon and all, but cutting his arm off seems extreme.

Over in Sam and Dean world Dean is understandably upset with Sam for going behind his back and involving Cas and Charlie. I’d say he could have eventually gotten over it if Charlie hadn’t been killed last week, but she did so. . .

Thanks Han Solo.

Dean makes an impassioned speech about how he’s going to rip apart the Stynes and everything they love. I’m gonna go ahead and say that I believed him. So Dean goes off on his mission of death after tracking down where the Stynes live and manages to get arrested (on made up charges because the Stynes were waiting on him). Now he’s in custody and it looks like he’s going to be handed over to the Stynes to be used as spare parts.

Sam is off with Rowena trying to get her to read the spell for the cure with the handy dandy decoder ring that Charlie emailed him right before her death. She doesn’t want to assist until Sam follows through with his agreement to kill Crowley. That’ll go smooth right? I think we should do what Cas wants to do.

This. This is what we should do. Can’t we find another witch? Like the one that’s a hamster right now?

Back to Sam and Dean– Dean is super upset because these cops hit the Impala while they were arresting him and making Dean more upset right now is mostly a bad idea. I’m going to take a moment and address the Freddie Mercury fake ID though. It’s like the SPN writers are trying to whip up a frenzy with the Destiel shippers by throwing in a fake ID with the name of a very famous bisexual. I don’t buy into Dean being gay or bi though. I know that many of you do, but I feel like if they incorporated that into the cannon now it would be just for all the Destiel fans. I don’t think that’s how the show should work. If something the fans want works into the plot organically that’s one thing, but Dean has always been depicted as a womanizer.

Back to this episode though, Dean shows off his ability to figure his way out of any situation. Which is important again in a moment.

So much confidence. I love evil Dean.

After a quick beat down of the Sheriff he finds out where to find the Stynes and gets warned off trying by the guy that’s getting beat down.

Sam on the other hand isn’t haven’t as good of a day. He traps Crowley with a devil’s trap bullet and then places the hex bag from Rowena into Crowley’s pocket that is supposed to kill him. But here’s the thing. Crowley hasn’t been himself lately making it easy to forget that he’s the King of Hell and super scary in his own right. It appears to me that all the hex bag managed to do was remove the timidity from Crowley. Which isn’t great news for Sam.

I like Crowley better when their working relationship is rocky so it’s looking good for that right now.

Dean has made it to the Styne manor and quickly dispatches the outside guards and promptly walks into a trap. Strapped to their operating table he warns them that he will turn into a demon if they kill him, but when that doesn’t work he takes matters into his own hands.

Welcome back scary, crazy Dean. I’ve missed you.

There is a lot of gore in this episode between the Styne’s, Dean’s attack here, and then the fights at the end, but I think the fact that they don’t show Dean fighting his way to safety, but just show him covered in blood afterwards is way scarier. We don’t know what he specifically did, but we know it was bad.

Sam calls Rowena to tell her her hex bag didn’t work and we see her somewhat shaken and scared. I don’t think she knows what her son is capable of. But I have a feeling she’s about to. Cas finds the destruction at the Styne’s and tells Sam that Dean is on his way to the bunker. So they both head that way to see what is going on.

Dean was told right before he killed Papa Psycho that his home and family is about to be destroyed which sent him back to the bunker. This is the showdown that Dean has been after. Dean is now face to face with Charlie’s killer and relishes getting to tell him that he’s killed all of his family before shooting him right between the eyes.

Young Styne that is trying to not be crazy begs for his life and tries to tell Dean he doesn’t have to kill him. Dean responded the only way he could in this mind set though. Do I think he should have murdered Baby Styne? No, but I get why he did. Now there’s no one left to come after him. No loose ends.

I will say that this scene began to make me upset to my stomach. This is definitely the most violent we’ve seen Dean which is saying a whole lot. How far will he go? Well we get to see almost immediately. Cas shows up right after Dean shoots the boy and begins to berate Dean for his actions. Dean fights back pointing out that Cas has been acting behind his back and acting against his wishes. Cas finally explains it in a way that makes sense to me. Dean had seemed pretty well adjusted up to this point and Sam and Cas were just looking ahead.

My biggest question is is the Mark of Cain making Dean stronger or is Cas becoming weaker as an angel? When Dean was a demon Cas was able to grab him and take him to be tied up. Now Dean easily takes out Cas.

I wasn’t scared that Sam was going to kill Crowley or that Crowley was going to kill Sam, but I did worry that Dean was going to kill Cas. I in no way want Cas to die, but it really would have driven the point home that Dean was off his rocker. Plus even though Charlie just died, this would have been a Bobby level death.

But I’m glad it didn’t happen.

Next week it looks like Death is back (and he’s one of my favorites) and I’m curious as to his solution to the Mark. I just know one thing though:

So things are looking iffy for the boys at the beginning of this episode. Sam is lying to Dean, Dean is tying to not kill everyone and some creepy doctor is scooping a chick’s eyeballs out. Rowena is manipulating Sam and can’t figure out how to use the Codex. Nobody is doing well.

We are also introduced to a new family that has spent a very long time evidently controlling the world and profiting off of it. The boys can’t find anything on them after they look back to the 1800’s and Dean thinks he’s found a connection to a case in Omaha. So now Sam has to work a case with Dean, involving the very people that are after the book he’s trying to hide. So many lies and deceptions– I’m sure this is going to be great.

Sam brings Charlie into this citing that Dean is getting worse and gets her to help Rowena break the code and figure out how to break the curse. He’s also brought in Cas to babysit them all. They are such a happy little family. Or something.

Sam gives a moving speech that makes it sound like he has a reason for lying so much to Dean. Yep– still hasn’t convinced me. But never the less they are working together for a common cause.

Sam now has to go off and work this case with Dean and they get a lucky break with some crazy high def security footage. Sam also gets plenty of awkward lies he gets to tell while trying to hide Cas’ phone calls. Dean becomes more and more suspicious of what is going on with Sam and Castiel and Charlie get more and more fed up with Rowena. Rowena finally pushes Charlie to try to get out and have some time to think alone. Even though both Sam and Castiel tell her not to leave, she runs out while Cas is distracted with Rowena.

I know people love her, but I hope Sam decides to kill her instead of Crowley.

Sam brings up the elephant in the room between him and Dean. Well, maybe not the only elephant, but one of them. Once again I will express my opinion that Dean actually seems to be doing great. Better I think then when he returned from Hell.

How is this different than normal?

Then– like everyone predicted– Castiel is a horrible liar to Dean and he becomes even more convinced that something is up. This is followed up by a bad lie from Sam to top it off.

So smooth Cas.

Dean goes out on a pizza run and gets cornered by two of the Stein boys which as we all knew ended poorly for them. Dean kills one of them and captures the other (the one that was popping out eyeballs earlier) and I have to say my one regret for this episode is that Dean didn’t torture this dude. He just spilled the beans mostly and then ripped his own arm off. I might would be more worried about Dean if we’d seen him tap into the things he learned in Hell combined with his Mark issue. However he just threatened the dude a little and then let him escape.

I’d have like to have seen it Dean.

This family reminds me of the dude they killed a while ago that was taking people’s body parts to stay immortal. I guess they’ve figured out how to do it without looking like a patchwork quilt. I was disappointed on how he pronounced Frankenstein though.

If you have not watched Young Frankenstein stop what you are doing and go watch it now.

Little Frankenstein did spill the beans that the book is impossible to destroy and that clued Dean into what Sam had been hiding.

Castiel lets Sam know that Charlie has run off and then Charlie calls Sam for help. Both boys warn Charlie to hand over all her stuff to psycho dude so he doesn’t kill her and she uploads all her info and states she can’t do that. Charlie knows what that book will do and will do anything to keep it out of their hands. The writers do throw out a tease to all you Destiel shippers out there– sooo close. . .

Cas loves you too. . .I know you were dying to have him say it.

Let me just say that my cable decided to cut out RIGHT after Charlie confronts dude in the bathroom so I didn’t know what happened. Then it came back on for the previews for next week showing the funeral. Thanks Dish Network.

The boys enter the crappy hotel room and see the blood leading into the bathroom. Not a good sign at any time, but Charlie is tough so I still held out hope (or I would have if Dish hadn’t ruined it for me) that she’d stabbed the dude in the throat. However we see Sam look like he’s going to be sick and we see Dean not handling it well either.

I’m not sure why Sam is so sick looking though. I’m pretty sure he’s done worse to others. I know he knew and loved Charlie, but I feel like anger should have been the better emotion here.

Dean proclaims that he will kill the person who did this and will destroy everything they’ve ever loved and I’m gonna say I believe him. He looks serious about this and it looks like the Mark is finally going to be let loose. Maybe now I’ll see what everyone has been scared of. I think (hope) there is a reason that Charlie had to die, but I do think the boys are really going to take this hard over all.

But now we have Charlie in Heaven with Bobby (and Ash and Jo and Ellen) and I really really would love to see them all get together and work this thing out from up there. Ash has figured out Heaven, Bobby now knows how to leave his Heaven and Charlie knows all the ins and outs of what is going on. I just think it would be awesome if this was fixed by Charlie and the only way she was able to fix it was because she died. That would make all this worth it. What do you think? Am I grasping as straws with that?

This week we took a break from the search for the cure and were introduced to an even bigger scum bag of an Angel then we have seen previously. Well except for Metatron. This was a good solid episode where the boys aren’t just out killing everything in sight. They actually had to work through a case, do research and help an innocent.

Here are a few questions I have though:

Why can’t Cas find Claire?

I’ve never understood all the ins and outs of the angels falling. Cas can now heal people and has his Grace back soooo what else does that grant him? Does getting your Grace back just mean now that you’re a healer and that’s it? When the Angels were looking for Sam and Dean during the apocalypse they could find them through prophets and dreams. Why can’t they use Cas to help locate Claire? I can buy that Claire’s mom Amelia (they really love that name don’t they) is somehow hidden because Angels and magic and stuff. Also did the fall of Heaven affect this rouge douchbag angel at all?

Why is everyone freaking out about Dean?

Ummmm I don’t think Dean beat that dude up because of the Mark. I’m pretty sure he would have done all that Mark or no Mark. The guy was a piece of crap that hurt a little girl. I’m pretty sure that’s a good enough reason in Sam or Dean’s book. Everyone keeps bringing up how out of control Dean is getting, but really since he went crazy and killed all those people the last time they saved Claire I haven’t seen anything out of the ordinary. Dean’s always been the one to shoot first and ask questions later.

I see nothing wrong with this.

I’m glad that Claire got to see the boys when they weren’t just killing people.

Yep Claire– pretty much everyone you meet in this world has a horrible back story too.

OK I know this isn’t a question about plot, but I’m glad that Claire got to see the boys and Cas in a different light. They aren’t always massacring huge groups of people or heavenly beings. Sam got to help Claire learn how to live out on her own and Dean helped her have a little fun in a scary and stressful time. The addition of Claire to Jody Mill’s household also makes me really hope there will be a spin off in that direction.

Is it just me or did Claire look proud when Dean told her Jimmy was a hero?

For all her hatred of Castiel I think she keeps coming back to him (even if she acts like she doesn’t want to) because she loved her father. So now she has confirmation that he really was the great man she remembers and not some jackass that left her and her mother for no reason. He did it to save not only her, but the world.

It was nice to see them show off their ability to survive– not just come in a slaughter.

Sam got knocked out– it looked bad for him, but we got to see him figure it out. He got out of a really bad situation and still helped save the day. And Dean figured out the guys needed help and instead of just rushing in to help he found out what he was facing and went in informed. Once again– I think Dean is doing great. Better now even than pre Mark of Cain.

Is there a reason Claire killed the angel and not Dean?

I know he’s trying to not hulk out, but would it have done something to the Mark if he’d killed an Angel? He’s killed them before– preMark, but I wondered if there was a reason Claire had the honors here. Or maybe it just gave her an opportunity to strike back against a group that tore apart her family. Metatron really wanted to make Dean kill him though so that leads me to believe that if Dean kills an Angel even if that angel is a total tool it will do something irreparable to Dean.

Is Amelia’s fake heaven that much different then her real one?

Did anyone else think it was super creepy that her fake heaven and her real heaven were so much alike? Is there something fundamentally messed up about Heaven too? Or was that just her desires were finally real? I know one thing though– Misha killed it.

I’m sure that’s not the last we’ve seen of Claire or her stolen Angel Sword, and I will just be over here holding out hope for that Jody Mills spinoff.

I think everyone knows that for this show to ever end the boys would have to die at the same time. But what if Dean kills Sam– or an even weirder twist Sam kills Dean?

This week’s episode got me thinking about how far we’ve come and what it would take to shock the viewers at this point. We see Sam working with Rowena and Dean taking down a nest of vampires on his own. Both of these things are horrible ideas, but are they that surprising? Nope. And that was just a continuation of bad decisions the boys have made.

And as idiotic as it is we know Dean can handle it.

We see a flashback to the Men of Letters expelling Magnus for inventing the Werther Box which causes people to commit suicide if they attempt to open it. So what does Sam do? Well he goes to open it of course. To be fair he goes to open it because Rowena says he needs the codex that’s kept inside to find the cure for Dean. He’s of course keeping this all from Dean and Dean (who followed Sam thinking that Sam is just sulking because of the vampire nest incident) is treating this like just a regular case. He doesn’t realize how serious this is. He just thinks he’s saving the person that’s living in the old Men of Letters house and any further people. What would the Men of Letters thought about Sam and Dean?

So once again we have the boys not working together 100% and at least Sam lying to Dean. Have we reached the point where they can never be the team they used to be?

Ummm, yeah that’s what everyone has been saying.

But we know from Cain that Dean is going to be pushed into killing Sam and up until this week I knew that they would find a way out of that somehow. If they manage to get the Mark of Cain off of Dean though that won’t really solve their problems. They’ve compromised their beliefs so many times are they really good anymore? They still will be working based on lies and deceit. It wasn’t that long ago that witches and spells were seen as the worst path you could go down and this week we see Sam performing a spell without a hesitation.

As long as Dean stays alive it’s cool right?

The Werther box induces hallucinations for everyone in the house trying to get them to commit suicide and it works on the woman that was living there, but Sam and Dean manage to avoid death. Dean through sheer will power (also he didn’t have the first blade on him– so could he really have died?) and Sam through Dean saving him. Sam was convinced that he needed to drain his blood to unlock the box (which he did need to do) and almost kills himself while doing so. While Sam is talking to a fake Rowena Dean is trapped in fake Purgatory with Benny.

Or also because you’re fake.

Dean knows that Benny and Purgatory aren’t real and after a little arguing he finally just kills off the fake Benny and breaks himself out of the spell. Benny said something during one of his speeches though that reminded me of previous events.

and since I found this GIF set online–I wasn’t the only one that caught it.

Also Sam was perfection as Lucifer– it was scary how much I loved him evil.

The first set is of Sam telling Dean that no matter what choices he makes he will always end up here. Always end up trying to kill Sam. Benny echos that statement in Purgatory. So maybe when we thought Dean had avoided that horrible zombie filled future he had just postponed it. Yeah Sam isn’t drinking demon blood anymore and he doesn’t have Lucifer trying to talk him into world destruction, but Sam no longer cares about wrong or right– just doing what he can to keep Dean alive. Dean isn’t avoiding Michael either, but he’s still fighting a holy battle at the moment.

So wouldn’t that be a kick in the teeth if we found out at the end of all of this craziness that they never truly won the battle with Lucifer– they just bought a little time. Even if Dean does end of trying to or succeeding in killing Sam I know one thing. I’m very glad that he got to Sam this week in time to save him.

So we leave this week with Dean thinking they are being honest with one another and with Sam in possession of the codex. I’m just so glad that he locked up Rowena when he gave it to her. But can the chains really hold her?